Raoul Pal says its likely ‘the market has found its bottom’

Raoul Pal, the founder and CEO of Real Vision and Global Macro Investor, believes the crypto market has “found its bottom” and that new upside momentum is likely.

The Real Vision CEO made his comments during an interview with Layah Heilpurn, with his outlook coming at a time Bitcoin and the rest of crypto is looking to bounce after a bout of fresh declines over the past few days.

Bitcoin, which traded to lows near $39,000 this week, has recovered some of the losses to currently hover near $41,200. The BTC-USD pair is 4% up in the past 24 hours, while the crypto market capitalisation has bounced 3%.

Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), BNB (BNB) XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL) have all added more than 3% in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and Avalanche (AVAX) are some of the biggest crypto gainers on the day so far.

Crypto didn’t make a new low

According to Pal, the crypto market has in the past several months been hit by various macro developments. However, no new low has been made since the last bottom in 2021 despite several likely negative triggers.

It’s a scenario that suggests crypto resilience and that that could point to a low already being in, although no one can with certainty predict the market.

The balance of probabilities is that we made the low last year, we retested the low this year and I think the low is in,” he noted.

He believes crypto’s seen “everything” that could have helped push prices to a new low. That hasn’t happened so far. He told Heilpurn:

I think we’ve thrown a war, 8.5% inflation, the Fed raising interest rates all at crypto, we’ve thrown the Chinese ban, we’ve thrown so much at it and [yet it]didn’t make a new low. Usually, that’s usually a signal the market has found its bottom.”

A slowing economy could trigger fresh upward action

On fresh catalysts for crypto prices, Pal thinks a slowdown in economic growth would be top of the list. This is a scenario that will trigger buying pressure in assets that “tend to outperform in low growth environments.”

He says that a change in the economic landscape could see “people fear inflation less and start fearing growth more.”According to Pal, this is when long-duration assets (and crypto is one such asset that loves a slowing economy) begin to outperform. 

In the stock market, Cathie Wood’s ARKK is a good example.

Pal also talked about Bitcoin’s four-year cycle narrative, noting that these are likely over given the market’s size today compared to during the early years. The cycle could yet have an impact, but that could be on a smaller scale as further adoption reduces the wild volatility, he added.

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Ethereum Merge could delay beyond Q2, says ETH developer

Ethereum Foundation developer Tim Beiko has hinted at a potential further delay to the Ethereum’s final switch to the much anticipated proof-of-stake mechanism.

The ‘Ethereum Merge’, it appears, will now take place “a few months” after June, yet another delay that pushes the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade beyond Q2 2022.

Beiko, who believes Ethereum miners should not be investing in new mining equipment at the moment, hinted at the delay early Wednesday morning.

It won’t be June, but likely in the few months after. No firm date yet, but we’re definitely in the final chapter of PoW on Ethereum” he noted.

What’s the Ethereum Merge?

On 1 December 2020, Ethereum’s Beacon chain went live, introducing the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to the Ethereum network.  It marked a new milestone in the ETH ecosystem’s push to transition from energy-intensive PoW mining.

But the Beacon chain runs parallel to the Ethereum Mainnet, which continues to use mining to secure the network.

The Merge is set to see the Mainnet and the Beacon chain become one, with mining being dropped wholly for staking as a way of securing the network. The “merge” is also eyed as the predecessor of shard chains, a key milestone in the quest for scalability, security and sustainability.

This is critical to Ethereum as it looks to secure even more value for society. The blockchain network currently anchors the most decentralised finance (DeFi) projects and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) among other applications.

 The merge was projected for the second quarter, according to an upgrades page on the same.

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Tether (USDT) launches on Kusama

Tether (USDT), whose market capitalisation of over $82 billion makes it the world’s largest stablecoin, has launched on the Kusama network.

The launch on Polkadot’s “canary network brings the pioneer dollar-pegged stablecoin to yet another blockchain.

Currently, USDT is live on ten major blockchain platforms, including Ethereum, Tron, Solana, EOS, Liquid Network, Omni, Algorand, and Bitcoin Cash’s Standard Ledger Protocol.

Powering transactions on Kusama’s Statemine

Kusama, a scalable multi-chain network of specialised blockchains, provides a platform upon which developers in the Polkadot ecosystem can run experimental projects. The network’s first parachain, which is an individual blockchain that runs parallel within the broader Polkadot ecosystem, is Statemine.

USDT will now be used to power transactions on Kusama’s Statemine parachain, Tether said in an announcement.

Statemine is a sort of “public-good parachain” designed to allow for balance-keeping of all the fungible and non-fungible tokens deployed within the network. With Statemine, developers can deploy various assets, including tokenized artwork and stablecoins.

Mainly, the parachain has helped bolster the Kusama network’s scalability and security. It’s also instrumental in enhancing the interoperability of blockchains.

Beneficial to developers

Tether’s launch on Kusama is a milestone for the stablecoin as well as the cryptocurrency platform. It’s a move that’s set to open up the blockchain to developers, allowing them to explore interoperability to the fullest.

We’re excited to launch USD₮ on Kusama, offering its community access to the most liquid, stable, and trusted stablecoin in the digital token space,” Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said in the release.

He added:

For those who believe in the importance of decentralized, permissionless ecosystems, Kusama is a perfect representation of that ethos. It is a platform built to put the control in the hands of its users and we are looking forward to becoming an essential asset in its growing ecosystem.”

With USDT’s usability and accessibility, developers can now tap into multi-chain capability and build trustless applications usable across blockchains.

Kusama (KSM) was trading at $161 at the time of writing, about 4.1% up in the past 24 hours.

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Highlights April 13: Crypto markets steady, Shiba Inu soars

The crypto market as a whole was steady today. The majority of top 10 cryptos registered gains over the past 24 hours, following several days of being in the red. 

Top cryptos

Bitcoin was seen flat this morning, trading above $40,000 at time of writing, while Ethereum, Cardano, XRP and Solana were up around 1%, and outside the Top 10, Shiba Inu jumped around 16%. 

The canine-themed meme coin has gained more than 35% since being listed on popular global exchange Robinhood. NEAR is down around 5% after a steady rally over the past few days. 

Top movers

The majority outside the top 20 was stable too, with fluctuations of +/- 1 to 3% in the value. At the time of writing, ApeCoin was up by around 4%. 

Coinbase is making a movie about it and a few days ago, industry leading Bitcoin ATM operator Coin Cloud announced it was adding APE to the Coin Cloud Network fleet-wide. Finally, Compound is up around 7%. 

On the other end, Waves has lost another 10%, bringing its weekly losses to over 30%. The token, which got a lot of support at the beginning of the Russian invasion, is rapidly reversing gains.

Trending

The biggest gainer of the day is Luniverse, a platform building spaces to connect projects with investors in the form of AMA spaces. It is adding functionality to have P2E mini games inside the space. 

Luniverse features an NFT collection called Lunicorns, which is reflective and provides 7% rewards in BNB. They also provide a 10% buyback and burn to the token, LUNI, which is up 2,225% today. 

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Dogecoin vs Shiba Inu: Which meme coin is a better buy?

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are the biggest meme coins in the world. The two have a combined market capitalization of $33.3 billion. This makes them bigger than well-known companies like Carmax, Chegg, Wayfair, Carvana, and SoFi among others. Dogecoin price has crashed by over 81% from its all-time high while Shiba Inu has fallen by over 70%. So, which is a better buy between DOGE and SHIB?

The case for Shiba Inu

There are several reasons why the Shiba Inu price is a better buy than Dogecoin. First, SHIB seems like it is more popular than Dogecoin. Data shows that SHIB is the second most popular cryptocurrency in social media platforms after Bitcoin. It is also one of the most held cryptocurrencies globally. Therefore, there is a likelihood that these users will help push it higher in the future.

Second, and most importantly, Shiba Inu has transitioned from being just a meme coin to a DeFi platform. In 2021, the developers launched ShibaSwap, an all-in-one platform for swapping coins and generating returns through staking and providing liquidity. 

According to the platform, it now has more than $100 million in total value locked (VL). This amount is slightly below that of Cardano, which is a bigger platform with over $300 million. Also, people can mint and trade NFTs in the platform. Therefore, there is a likelihood that this DeFi platform will keep doing well.

Further, Shiba Inu developers have announced plans to launch metaverse tools in a bid to expand its engagement. These initiatives will likely push the Shiba Inu price sharply higher. Most importantly, Shiba Inu holders are more evenly spread.

The case for Dogecoin

On the other hand, there are several reasons why Dogecoin is a better investment than Shiba Inu. First, Dogecoin is viewed as a pioneer in the meme coin industry. As a result, many people believe that it has a better chance for global acceptance than Shiba Inu. They cite the success of Bitcoin to back their case. Consider what Mark Cuban said about DOGE:

“And then you got dogecoin, which is just fun. But the weird part about it [is that] it went from being a cryptocurrency joke to now becoming something that’s becoming a digital currency.”

Further, Dogecoin is promoted by Elon Musk, the richest person in the world. The fact that he holds the coin is seen as a way of validating its existence. However, Shiba Inu advocates see this as a negative catalyst for the coin since he can change his mind.

Therefore, in my view, I see Shiba Inu as being a better investment than Dogecoin because it has expanded its use case.

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